The 2006 Deval Patrick Campaign for Governor of Massachusetts

I worked as a volunteer photographer for the Deval Patrick Campaign for Governor of Massachusetts, documenting the election during its last two frenetic months in the Fall of 2006, and then eight weeks later, at the Inauguration. Once I had the images I needed at a campaign event, I turned my camera around and photographed within the crowd, as a part of the crowd. It is these photographs of ordinary people come together to support Deval Patrick that comprise the heart of this work.

I’ve heard talk of a new era of race relations in Massachusetts; whether or not this is true, I certainly felt something extraordinary while photographing the campaign. It was as if racial differences were something to value in one another, and instead of downplaying our differences, we were empowered to build something out of them, and to celebrate them. Perhaps because of this, the photographs almost seemed to take themselves, and cut to the essence of the Campaign, with its slogan, “Together We Can.”

"A Victory for Hope," an exhibition of these photographs, was shown at the Panopticon Gallery of Photography, in Boston, MA, from January 29 through May 10, 2007.

In March, 2008 the Deval Patrick Committee installed 30 photographs from this series in their Boston offices.

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